Thursday, October 10, 2013

This week was fast, but good. On monday, a member took us over to a mini amusement park, and we rode some crazy bob sled rollercoaster ride. Apparently, it's "the fastest forest bob sled ride in Hungary." Then we spent the rest of our Pday to hang out at a little playground and crack a traditional Hungarian whip.

That was the beginning of a very fast week that ended on Friday. I woke up and knew it would be a very slow "weekend." For example, I got really excited that night, that like 6 baptisms had happened in one of my old areas... "I'm so glad that it's Saturday the 12th today!" I thought. Right before I called my old companion, however, I remembered that it was really Friday the 4th... It was pretty slow until General Conference. We basically missed the first and last sessions, but the rest of it we got to see in English! Yeah!! Very uplifting.

Also, early on in the week, I found a cool, real 4 leaf clover in a plastic keychain, and ever since then, I've felt about as lucky as I have the rest of my life. But I still carry it around with me wherever I go.

Well, I really have no other news, except that I'm still alive and safe, so I guess all of your prayers are still being answered! Haha.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Well, pretty much none of our investigators were able to meet
this week, so we had a great week of looking for more people, and meeting with
less active members. But on one day, when we did have two programs
back-to-back, they both fed us to the brim. Also, I always tell people that I
like to cook, and then they feed us. Then they invite us over for dinner
another time to teach me how to make the food, so I guess I've got the system
figured out.

The other day, after a ward activity, one member girl asked
me and my companion for a blessing because she has been really sick. Right
after the blessing, she said that she was feeling better, and the next day she
was completely better!

Also, we teach a 10 year old boy and his mom. My first
program with them, the mom told us that she didn't want to meet anymore, but
the son kept coming to church every week by himself, so she would let us come
visit him. Well, things have been getting progressively better. Last night, the
mom told us about a question she had been thinking about, and she opened the
Book of Mormon that morning to a short chapter that answered her question
exactly! What more, by the end of the lesson, we extended a baptismal challenge to both of them, and they accepted!
Woo hoo!

Yeah, that's about the whole week. Yeah! So great! Today, we
are going to some kind of adventure park with a member and the other elders to
start off a great week! Woo!

Yup,

love,

mitch

1.) On splits. My temporary companion teaching someone
German while I mess around with little kids.

Well, this week has been pretty good for us. Not too
eventful or anything though. Our washing machine doesn't work. Last week, we
had to take the laundry to the other elders apartment, but this week, we
decided to try handwashing it in the tub. It's a pretty annoying chore!

As for teaching, it seems like we've been meeting with an
amazing amount of super old people. One super old lady offered us some
watermelon, but wouldn't take no for an answer. Then, because she wasn't able
to pick her watermelon off the floor, I had to take it to the kitchen for her.
She asked how much we wanted. I said, "I just ate, so I don't want very
much, but Elder McCurdy is very, very hungry, so he wants a looot of
watermelon," and thus, Elder McCurdy had to eat lots and lots of watermelon,
haha.

Last week, McCurdy set up with a lady who used to be an
investigator like a year ago, but I had forgotten, so I also called her a few
days later and tried to set up, and she was like, "Well, I already set up
with you guys to meet at your building at 3 on Tuesday."

"Hmmm..." I said. "Couldn't have been us, we
already have a program at 3 on Tuesday. Maybe the other elders set up with you.
I guess we'll just find out on Tuesday..." Once I heard McCurdy's laughs,
I realized how dumb I was. And I think the lady thought I was pretty dumb too,
because she definitely did not show up at 3, haha.

One other lady we taught was pretty crazy. We were trying to
teach her the Plan of Salvation, and she kept trying to change the subject to
her conspiracy theories that Jews rule the world. Sometimes, I just want to
yell at people like that, especially when it has exactly nothing to do with the
lesson, haha. Yikes!

Other than that, we do have some cool investigators. There
is Dani, who is a 10 year old kid. He lives with his single, bedridden mother,
and comes to church by himself from the other side of town. He loves us and
told me that he will come to church every week, and to activities, too. So he's
pretty cool. It's hard to be able to teach him, but hopefully we will be able
to help him be baptized sometime!

We also teach a super legit lady who accepted a baptismal
date for the 2nd of November!

Also, from Pápa, my 2nd area, a total of 5 people are being
baptized that I either found or taught the whole time I was there, and they are
all being baptized on the same day-- October 12!

I am currently in a new city, called Miskolc (Meesh colts).
My companion is Elder McCurdy, a good friend of mine from the MTC, which means
that I am no longer a little junior companion!!! The language is coming, slowly
but surely, and I have seen a lot of progress in just the last couple of weeks,
which is pretty comforting. McCurdy is a super cool guy too, so we have a lot
of fun together. Nothing really too exciting has happened though.

But I did realize that I have a reputation throughout the
mission now. I am the guy "from Nebraska who likes bagels." When I
meet new people, they're like, "Oh! You're the bagel guy!!!"
Sometimes people know me as the guy "who gets három csibe (3 chicken
burgers) every time he goes to McDonald's" too, but it's not as common.
I'm so glad that everyone knows who I am now.

2 people I taught, a mother and daughter, are set to be
baptized this Saturday! Then another guy I taught is getting baptized the
following week!!! Wow! Things are happening!

Looking back at the past week, it's hard to believe that it
was only one week! Haha. The days are all long, but eventful.

Well, we were able to find a few good people to teach, and
continue to keep teaching others.

It wasn't too
exciting of a week or anything though. Not really anything interesting
happened, except one crazy tracting experience.

One day, while going door-to-door like usual, we saw a man
approaching us from a house we knocked on like 10 minutes before. He was
extremely angry, and yelled many things at us, including how he knows that we
can't be servants of God because if we were, God wouldn't have allowed us to
wake up his child and ruin their family's afternoon. He also knows we we
worship Satan, because he's been to our church before, and there are no
crosses.

He eventually left, but returned a couple minutes later
(while we were having a conversation with someone else) with a Cross in one
hand and a bottle of Holy Water in the other. He again loudly explained why we
aren't Christians and why we are going to hell. Then he said, "Are you
guys like the Jehova's Witnesses, who are afraid of Catholic Holy Water?!"

"No."

"Hmm... lucky for you... this time." Then he just
stormed back home.

Follow up to the story: We saw this same man in the library
where we are currently emailing! He was a lot more pleasant this time around...
haha.

Yup, that was my week. I have no more time though, so I have
to go.

But, I am getting transferred!! I'm going to a city called
Miskolc in the NE corner of the country, with one of my buddies from the MTC!!!
10 week tranfer!!! It will be good!

BOLDOG SZÜLI NAPOT, ANYUKA!!! Hope you are having a good
birthday!! And hopefully you have a good cruise this week!!! Don't get attacked
by pirates!

Well, it's really crazy to hear about everyone growing up.
Poor Jason can't go to priests quorum, and is going off to BYU. And Clare is
going back to Seminary where the rules are super strict!! And Jon's back and
everyone else is on their mission or married. Sounds like a lot of fun!

Well, over here, nothing really crazy has happened. Each day
I just kind of roll out of bed, go tracting, and come home to sleep. Sometimes
I eat during the day, too, but I think that's it.

I did go on splits on
Wednesday, with a brand new missionary, and it was my first time being the
"senior companion" for the day, so that was really fun! It was really
weird when I would talk to someone on the street for like 15 minutes, and
realize that I was the only missionary talking, haha. Pretty nuts!

One day, while
tracting, I was having a hard day, but we tracted into one guy and talked to
him for like 10 minutes at the door. He wasn't interested at all, but his
neighbor had the window open while watching Indiana Jones, so I got to hear the
Indiana Jones theme music the whole time we spoke to the guy. Tender mercies!

The other elder
companionship in our city had a baptism, and at the baptism, some guy named
Vince found out that I'm related to "Brimgah Yőng." He was so
excited! He he gave me a biiiig hug, and on Sunday he brought his Book of
Mormon, and asked me to "dedicate" it. I didn't know what that meant,
so I just wrote, "To Vince: Elder Young. 2013. 08. 18." He was so
happy! Haha.

Also on Sunday, we
met with this old lady who claims to have died once. Her dad accidentally threw
a knife through her stomach. She also tried to make me drink wine. She is an
interesting person, that is for sure.

And lastly, I found
out that Szombathely used to be an old Roman city, and there even used to be a
Roman highway that runs right next to my apartment. Also, there is a big
holiday (extra p-day for us!) tomorrow, and here, they turn it into a Roman
festival! It will be interesting to see what it's like around here.

It seems like you guys had a crazy time doing crazy things.
Gotta love those crazy trips!

Well, I guess a few interesting things happened this week.

While we were tracting in an apartment building, some lady
screamed at us for like 5 minutes, and was still screaming when we left, and we
could even hear her screaming complaints to her neighbor on our way out the
building. Why must they scream and yell!?! If they tell me to leave, I will
leave! Haha. Of course, when we left the building, my companion got mad and
rang her number on the machine before we left, just to make the lady mad. I
guess neither action was really necessary, haha. It sure was a great start to
the week, though!!

On Wednesday, we went on exchanges, and I went with a guy
named Elder Vanderpool, and we had a really fun time. We made a game out of
talking to people on the street, and we made real American pancakes w/ real
maple syrup for dinner!

Thursday, we had interviews with he mission president. He
basically told me that my companion will be someone from my MTC group, but he
also told me the same thing like 3 months ago... haha. We'll see, haha.

On Saturday, Moses and I were about to leave the apartment
to start the day. We said our leaving prayer, then I turned the key, and...
SNAP! Half the key just sorta broke off into the keyhole. We stared at the key,
and then I just laughed until I cried.
Elder Moses didn't say anything or show any sort of emotion, which was pretty
lame. Then we crawled out the window and started finding people.

Lastly, yesterday, in Sunday school, we had a teacher who
had perhaps the biggest mustache I've ever seen. I drew a picture of it in my
planner, haha.

Well, we have actually found quite a few people to teach
this week!! For this week alone, we already have over 10 lessons set up! Also,
at the beginning of the week, it was so hot! I heard that Thursday was the
hottest day of the year. Luckily though, we've had a couple little storms, so
things have cooled down quite a bit.

The coolest thing is seeing everything from my roof. We have
a huge roof/patio thing with a pretty cool view of different big church
buildings around. There is also some kind of orchestra house nearby, so at
night, we can hear the music really well. Friday night had a really nice
thunderstorm with trumpets playing in the background. It was so fantastic.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

This has been a very
good week for us! Everything has been very eventful, but I forgot to bring my
planner to the email place, so we'll see if I can remember some good things.

The best thing that
happened was that we challenged 2 of our investigators to baptism, and they
both accepted! One, the golden guy who had already met the elders in England,
is scheduled for August 10th, and the other, a man who just needs to get
married (and first needs to find some old divorce papers or something), is set
for the 31st of August. Right now, our entire Zone has 5 baptismal dates
scheduled, and by next week, if everything goes right, over half of those could
be from Pápa, haha. It's kind of sad.

One thing that my
companion and I have started doing is waving really big at random strangers
just for fun. We will throw our arm way over our head and say hello to them and
see their reactions.

One day, we were on
our way home for the night, talking about how fun it is to do things like that,
when my companion decided to make one more wave at some lady in her backyard.
She thought we knew her or something, so she yelled at us to come in, and we
talked to her and everyone at her house for like 45 minutes, haha. They also
have a huge concrete fence/wall thingy in their backyard, so I think the next
time we go teach them, we will bring sidewalk chalk and draw the Plan of
Salvation on it! Haha.

This has definitely been a very good week here in Pápa! Last week was my first
week with my new companion, and much of it was spent tracting and finding some
interested people, and this week has been full of actually meeting and teaching
many of them!

One reason why I am so
excited for new people to teach is because all the old people are really
wearing me down, haha. A few people we have been teaching for a while love to
just try and complain to us for an hour and blame everyone else for their
problems, as if we can fix them. A lot of those old investigators are really getting
on my nerves, and sometimes I just lose my patience!!!! Haha.

Another problem I've
encountered is the impulse to laugh during a lesson when something is funny.

In one program, the
member we brought would always change the subject, and just talk and talk and
talk about nothing, and whenever I would look at Elder Bebel, we would both
crack up. At one point I had to pretend I had a bad cough and get a drink of
water, haha.

During another lesson
(with a 22 year old member, teaching a 30 year old guy), I was not following
the conversation, so I kind of spaced off for a few seconds. Then Bebel asked
me to read "the verse," and I said, "Sure... which verse?"
and everyone just busted up laughing for a good 10 minutes, and the investigator
would have little random giggle fits every 2 minutes or so until we left, haha.

One really cool
program we had was with one of our investigators, who loves the Baptist
congregation here, and has been thinking of being baptized Baptist soon. So,
while reading General Conference talks, just before we met with her this week,
she had an extremely strong feeling that she needed to go to church, but didn't
know WHICH church, haha. We had already planned on teaching her how to receive
a testimony, and church attendance was the last thing she hadn't done already!
She still wasn't sure if she would, but she actually ended up coming to
Sacrament meeting this week (but left right at the end)! We will meet with her
tomorrow and learn more about how the experience was for her.

And during sunday
school, the Branch President gave a really cool lesson about missionary work,
and made a raffle for all the members of the branch. Then he drew all the
names, so one person was to have us over each week (he and his wife are the
first 2 weeks... haha) and be prepared to give referrals to us (and possibly
feed us)!

He also gave us a
branch roster, and we reviewed all the less active members and how we could
help them back into activity.

I think that the work
in Pápa will be going really well in the near future!

Either way, I'm
definitely dead after this last week, haha.

Well, during the week,
we've also had a lot of random little stories that I can't really fit here.
Also, my camera works fine, but the computer can't recognize any files, so I
can't send any pictures... :(

Hopefully everyone has
a good time at the family reunion! I hope it goes well! Safe travels!

On Tuesday, right
after emailing, Elder Hatfield and I went on our bike ride to a mountain called
Somló. It's super cool because this entire area of the country is and entirely
flat farming country, then there's this random mountain in the middle of
nowhere.

Well, the mountain is
about 25 km away, and we had some sketchy directions, so to make a long story
short, we ended up spending half our trip there biking straight through a
forest and some farmer's fields, as well as up the mountain itself. By the time
we reached the castle ruins at the top, I was too dead to be able to enjoy it,
so I just laid on the ground for most of it while my companion explored and had
the time of his life! Haha.

We won't even talk
about the trip home... in all, the excursion lasted about 7 hours, a few longer
than we thought it would, haha.

Wednesday was
transfers, so I got my new companion, Elder Bebel. He came from Budapest, so he
was used to having lessons all day and hardly having to actually go find
people, and so I can just imagine how excited he was for several days of
tracting this week.

Thursday, we started
tracting, and the first two doors we knocked on gave us their numbers and asked
us to come back and teach them next week. We had several more good experiences,
and a few really funny ones, too. At our English class, a new couple came in
and were more interested in learning about the Church than learning
English.

Friday was the same.
In just a few hours of tracting, Bebel and I had more success finding than
Hatfield and I had in the last 6 weeks! Haha.

Saturday didn't bring
the same success tracting, but we met with our "golden investigator"
from England for a real lesson, and he is doing really well. I think we are
going to challenge him to baptism when we meet him this week.

Sunday was probably
the most interesting day of the week. During church, one of our investigators
had some kind of nervous breakdown during Elders Quorum, and began to argue and
yell at everyone. He's fine now though.

The most
interesting part of the day though, was when we visited family of the guy who
stole a car last week and wanted us to teach them the Word of God. They are
very poor (they live in a tiny little shanty-town area) and they have a large
yard full of junk everywhere, and their car is definitely hot-wired. They also
have 5 little kids, all probably under the age of 9. (One thing we noticed, was
that the only kid wearing shoes, also had no pants). It was really sad, but
they are a really cool family. They liked what we taught them, and wanted us to
come back, so maybe they can go somewhere!

Yup, we had a very
awesome, and very interesting week! Elder Bebel and I are getting along really
well, and so things are all going well here! There was a lot of funny stuff
that also happened that I can't fit here but we had a way good last few days.
The computers also don't work very well here, so I will try to get pictures in,
but no promises! Love you all! Thanks for the love and support!

First of all,
transfers are tomorrow, so we got our calls this morning. Elder Hatfield is
leaving, and my new companion will be Elder Bebel, who is in the same group as
Hatfield. Elder Hatfield is also going to Érd, where I just came from! Things
are exciting!

I am now in my 5th
transfer! Also, this last Friday marks one year since I got my mission call!

Well, I few pretty
cool things have happened this week.

On Wednesday, we were
biking home on a pretty narrow road, and a truck turned pretty quickly into our
direction. My comp swerved out of the way, but the truck and I both had to slam
our brakes when we saw each other, and I'm pretty sure I almost died. Then a
bum that we see every day yelled at me from across the street. I only caught a
few words. "Hey you...!! Accident....!!! Bycicle...!!!"

On Thursday, we found
ourselves in the ghetto part of town, so you know how nice everything must have
been there. After some time, we headed back to the real town, and a very full
little car pulled up next to us. The driver was a man, then there were 2 kids
in the front seat, and his wife and like 3 more kids in the back seat.

"Hey, are you
guys preaching the word of God?!" he asked.

"Why, yes we
are."

"Well, you should
come over to our place sometime and teach us. I think it would be good for our
family." After exchanging numbers, we were about to leave, when the guy
gleefully exclaimed, "I just stole this car! Look!" and showed us
that he had just hot-wired the car, before driving off into the sunset.
Maybe they do need the Gospel in their lives, haha.

Saturday was the
highlight of the week, I think. We biked over to a little village and went
tracting for a few hours there. Eventually, we got to a nice little road at the
end of the town, and found a nice little house with no doorbell, and the gate
was locked. After joking about the person's dog being dead (normally all dogs
come barking at the gate when we get there, but this one just layed there in
the grass), we kept going.

Getting to the other
side of the street, we met a guy who was not interested, but said that his
neighbor had just gotten back from England, and had met with the Mormons there.
So he took us to the house and hollered at the guy, since there was no
doorbell, and they took us in. Apparently our new friend doesn't even speak
much English, so he didn't understand much from the elders, but had gone to
church there, and at least had a Hungarian BoM (and is already halfway
through).
We found out that this guy, Ferenc, just got back 2 days before we got there,
and we were planning on tracting that street like a week before! Also, our
branch is pretty low on priesthood holders, so that has been a focus of our
prayers and fasting, to find potential priesthood holders. In this house, there
lives Ferenc, who is 30, his 2 teenage brothers, and his dad. Hopefully
something will come out of this miracle!

And, by the way,
Ferenc's dog is actually not dead.

On Sunday, we made
Paprikás Csirke, and it was delicious!

And finally, today, we
are going to bike to and maybe climb this random mountain, that may or may not
have a castle on top. It will take over an hour to bike there and back, so
hopefully it is worth all the effort!!

So this week has felt
like a million years long. Tuesday was pretty rough. We challenged an
investigator to baptism, and she got really uncomfortable, and it was much more
awkward of a lesson than it should have been. Then we had another investigator
just getting really excited about her questions, and was basically yelling at
us, haha. We basically told her we can't feel the spirit when she does that, so
we told her we'd talk next time, haha.

On Wednesday, we had
splits, so I missed out on an investigator teaching us how to make Paprikás
Csirke!!! But I went to another town called Győr, and on the street, we saw a
drunk guy with an inappropriate shirt on, a pacifier in his mouth, a big bottle
of beer in one hand, and a really colorful bra in the other hand. He was
hugging a big ice cream cone statue, then started dancing in the town square,
before walking across the street, thriough the traffic, unharmed. It was
probably one of the craziest sights I've seen yet, haha.

Friday, one of our
investigators said he'd be late, so we took advantage of our time and got some
much needed ice cream. On the way back to the Branch House, we ran into a
member who hadn't been to church in a long time (neither of us knew who he
was), and he said he wanted to come back to church. How did we know?
Indigestion? No... inspiration!

Other than that, we
just went tracting this week. We meet a lot of funny people out there.

"What's the most
important thing in your life?"

"Health."

"Hmmm...
what about family?"

"You
can't enjoy your family if you're not healthy! And I'll never be healthy, so
I'm just suffering and waiting to die now."

Another week came and
went. Nothing really exciting happened until Thursday, when we took a trip up
to Budapest for interviews with the mission president! We started off our trip
by spending the whole 2 hour train ride behind a huge group of loud, obnoxious
Germans, which was really fun to listen to.

The actual interviews
were really good though, and President basically told me that since the mission
is getting so much younger soon (a lot of older elders are going home, and
we're getting about 30 new ones this summer), I will probably have to start
serving with elders from my own group in the next month or 2. It will be
exciting!

I also got Jason's
graduation invitation, which was pretty cool! I guess I missed the actual party
though... darn...

On Friday, we met with
an investigator who is reading through the Book of Mormon. He is in 2nd Nephi,
and had expressed concerns that it was very hard to understand, and must not be
a good translation. I explained to him that it's actually just as hard to
understand in English, then I told him the joke about the guy who had a BoM in
his shirt pocket and got shot, but was fine because the bullet never made it
past 2nd Nephi, haha. I think it made him feel better.

Saturday, we taught
the Plan of Salvation to one of our investigators. She thought it was really
interesting, but could not get herself to even imagine that there could be a
pre-existance. It made me really glad to have that kind of knowledge available
to me since I was very little, because I never really thought of it as
something that would be impossible! Hopefully she will be able to think and
pray more about it and accept it!

That night, we also
ran into a guy who used to meet with the missionaries. He was a really big guy,
wearing a shirt that said, "Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll!" and he was
pretty drunk. It was a pretty interesting, because most drunk people we meet
are like 60, but he was our age, so we could actually talk about music and
movies and other pop-culture things that the kids are into these days. For
example, he asked if we liked Justin Bieber, and when we said no, he threw his
hands in the air and yelled, "Yes! There is a god!" It was a fun
little end to our day.

This has been a good
week, but it has been pretty short, since we just had P-day last Tuesday, on
account of a holiday here last Monday.

On Wednesday, we were
Tabling at a bench on the sidewalk, and some police officers came up and asked
us to leave, since apparently we need a permit to do that. They were really
nice about it, but it's been kind of a hassle, since now we have to spend our entire
days tracting, which is just the greatest!

So, while tracting the
next day, we knocked into this super duper old guy and his wife, and they let
us in and so we tried talking to them. I'm pretty sure he was almost deaf, and
he mumbled a lot so nobody could really understand each other, haha, but we
asked if we could help them in any way, and he took us out into his huge garden
and had us help him pick strawberries.

"This isn't for
us, right?" "Neeeeeeem, of course not!"

And then we went back
inside, and he bagged the strawberries, and gave them to us as a gift!
Hurray!

Speaking of food, we
also have an investigator who is going to teach us how to make Pörkölt/Paprikás
Csirke this week, so we are really excited for that! We also bought Rakott Krumpli
ingredients, so we will make a big pan of that today as well. Not to mention,
we got fed real Hungarian meals twice yesterday and it was amazing. We love our
Hungarian food, and we'll be eating a lot of it this week!

Other than that, we
will go on splits with the Zone leaders, have interviews with President Smith
(in Budapest!!!), and lots and lots of tracting this week! Hopefully the work
will start to pick up more here in Pápa with all the finding time we get! Haha.

Well, I love you all!
Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Young

The old Strawberry man
in his garden

The internet isnt
working so well, so I dont think I'll be able to send my other pictures today,
haha.

This
has been one heck of a week! Very busy and super long, but it has also been
really good!

Last Monday was my 6
month mark, so I may or may not have burned a tie on our balcony, which was
pretty fun.

On Tuesday last week,
we met with a guy named Nándor from our English Class for the first time. I had
given him a Book of Mormon almost a month ago, and so it was really cool when
he agreed to meet with us. We started to teach him about the Restoration and
the Book of Mormon, and he had already looked up a bunch of stuff about the
church on the internet, and so he pretty much knew the whole Restoration story
pretty accurately, and had read some of his BoM too. After talking to him for a
bit, we showed him Moroni 10:4,5 and asked if he would be baptized if he knew
it was true. To our surprise, he told us that he already believed it and would
like to be baptized! So we set the date for the beginning of July! It was an
awesome lesson, and he came to stake conference with us on Sunday, too!

Also, on Sunday night,
we invited Nándor and Ricsi, our other investigator w/ a baptismal date, to
make some Rakott Krumpli with us at the branch house. It was an awesome
program, and the food was also very delicous! We have some really cool
investigators!

Going back to
Wednesday, it was the Hungarian Labor Day, so Judd and I just made some cookies
for our English classes (he teaches beginner and I teach intermediate) and we
just had a fun day, which was super awesome! Haha. Allayna sent me some Reese's
Pieces, so I made them with the cookies.

It was kind of sad
this week though, knowing that I would leave to another city, so all my
programs this week were goodbye programs! I got pictures with a lot of our
investigators and members (some for the 2nd time since I thought I'd leave last
transfer too, haha).

Today, I got my
transfer call to move to a town called Pápa, in the West. My new companion is
Elder Hatfield, who's been here since last August. I've heard he is a super
cool guy and the area is really good, so I'm very excited! This will be a good
transfer!

It seems like things
are going well at home! I'm glad the school year is finally getting over with
for Clare, and Jason especially! And it sounds like there is a lot of music and
scouts stuff going on! Dang! Jason better get that Eagle done quick, or he'll
end up like me and Brent. I'm glad he is working on it, though. You go,
Jason!

That's crazy that Matt
is already home! I remember when he was my AP for a week! Haha. I wish him good
luck with adjusting to normal life and everything!

Not too much exciting
this week. I went on exchanges for a day to a place called Kis Pest, with a guy
named Elder Peterson. We had a full day of lessons planned to teach, but they
all fell through, and we just ended up tracting the whole day! It was great! We
also went on the roofs of 10 story apartment buildings and explored, so it was
pretty exciting!

Then we went home, and
burned some fries, so the whole apartment was filled with smoke!!

On Tuesday, Elder Judd
and I started to work out with Insanity again. I haven't done any exercise in a
few months, so I have been pretty sore and tired every day.

Also, last week, I
bought some new socks with all the days of the week on them. Now I will never
forget!

Lastly, the weather
has finally been consistently warm every day, so everything is turning green
and it always feels good outside!!

Last Monday, about 10
missionaries and I went up to a castle on a mountain called János Hegy, and it
might be the highest point in Budapest. You could see forever around and it was
pretty awesome!

On Wednesday, I had an
interview with the mission president. He told me that we doesn't want me in my
greenie area anymore, because people who only know me as a greenie will slow my
progress, because they will always think of me as the brand new kid who doesn't
speak (which is very true, and really annoying sometimes). So I'm basically
guaranteed to move to my 2nd area in 2 weeks! Yeah!

On Thursday, we had a
lesson that we wanted to watch the Restoration movie in, so we ran to the
Branch House before hand and grabbed it really quick. It was a 15 language
version... with no Hungarian, haha. I have no idea why it was there, but it
just made for a funny start to the lesson, haha.

So there is an
investigator family that we do a half english with the dad, then half gospel,
and we meet with them twice a week. On Friday, we saw them, and the dad spent
the whole English part talking about scifi books, and ancient Hungarian
warriors, haha. He showed us book after book and explained all the history of
Hungarian wars and stuff, haha.

Then on Saturday, he
took us over to a park and brought his huge traditional Hungarian bow and
arrows, and we shot arrows in the woods, haha. It was super cool!!

On Sunday, an
investigator had us over to cook bacon and sausage over the fire. It was super
delicious! You let the bacon fat drip onto bread until it becomes soggy and
delicous. Man, it was the tastiest heart attack I've ever had!

Then, after the
appointment (at like 7) all the trains to Érd were super late, so after waiting
like an hour and a half, we took a tram to Budapest to find a better train,
only to discover that all trains to take us home were cancelled for no reason!
There was literally no way to get home before 1am (it was about 10:30 by this
time), and I didn't want to take like 4 buses to get all the way to Érd, haha!
We were cold and exhausted, so we found some elders in Buda and crashed at
their place last night and then took the train home this morning. It was
ridiculous!

Today, we didn't
really do too much. We came back up to Pest to play basketball until everyone
was starving, and then went to a delicous buffet and ate our hearts out! Now I
am sleepy and emailing!

Well, that has been my
week. Nothing too new or exciting, but very busy and fun! I'll try and send
pictures.

This has been a really
good week for us! A few things that have happened this week:

I've been feeling a
lot better about the language every week. I'm able to understand a lot more,
but I've gotten much better at just being comfortable talking to people, and
I've seen my speaking skills improve a lot.

On Tuesday, I was able
to help teach a lesson with some other missionaries and a member, and I was
amazed that I spoke about as well as some people do who have been on their
missions 6 mos longer than me! Yikes!

Best of all, the
weather has been super fantastic all week (except there was some crazy
hailstorm for like 15 minutes on wednesday)!

Other than that, most
of our week has not been too interesting, but we have been really busy! We also
gave a few people challenges to be baptized, and while they said not now, I
think that it is very good that they are thinking about how important it is,
and they want to understand more.

We also had a very
good English Class on Wednesday, and we had several new people ask us to teach
them, along with helping them with English.

On Friday was when it
started to get really good! Friday morning, we went on splits again, and I got
put with my MTC companion, Elder Jones, for the second time! But this time we
aren't in our 2nd week in the country, so it was a lot better. It was cool to
see how much we have both improved in the last couple months. It was kind of
like the good ol' MTC times, except using real Hungarian when we teach!
Haha.

On Saturday, we
switched back into companionships, and Judd and I went to see Noémi (one of my
first investigators here) get baptized! She found the Church through some
American members' blog, and requested a Book of Mormon back in December, and
wanted to be baptized on her birthday! We found out that she actually lived in
another ward boundary though, so she had to switch to the Buda ward. Ergo, the
chapel was filled to the brim with 2 wards of people! It was super awesome!
Elder Bracken, my trainer, baptized her. And the couple whose blog she found
was there too (She said she'd send some pictures to you).

On Sunday, we had fast
sunday. There is a senior couple in our branch, and the sister asked me to
translate her testimony for her... so I did. I told her that I would as long as
she kept it really, really, really simple... but she didn't, haha. So it was
really hard, but it was pretty cool to be able to publicly translate something
into Hungarian! Haha.

Also, I have been in
the country for exactly 3 months now! Imagine that!